Monday, October 31, 2005Caoching Philosophy
So, yesterday I was watching the Titans fall behind by 17 early and then come back to at least make it interesting heading into the 4th Quarter against the Raiders and lamenting that, once again, FOX 17 coudn't be bothered to show us the battle for first place in the NFC East between my beloved Redskins and the hated New York Giants (sorry, Eli....gotta root against you!) But you know, as the score kept scrolling across the bottom of CBS's coverage of the Titans game, I started thinking--maybe this is not such a bad thing. Because looking at the score and the story from the Washington Post about the game, I might have felt sick to my stomach, much the same way I did Saturday night. Seems the Redskins laid a huge egg against the Giants, not even really bothering to show up and losing 36-0.

Wow..that is painful.

Really, really painful.

I'm getting ill just looking at it.

OK, focus on the positive--at least it wasn't losing the Cowboys. You would have had to talk me down off a bridge if that had happened.

Also, the good news is that, once again, the NFC East is the best division in the NFL..the way it should be. And that the Skins get a chance for some redemption next week at home against the Eagles in another huge divisional game that---Hallelujah!--is on ESPN Sunday night.

But in trying to understand how the Skins got humilated so, I went to the Washington Post's coverage of the game. And this is what coach Joe Gibbs had to say:

"Something like this starts with me," Gibbs said. "Certainly that's my responsibility. I think it was all of us together."

As I read that, I am reminded of just what I respect Joe Gibbs so much--as a coach and a person. See, for Gibbs it's all about responsiblity. He doesn't say--gee, we can't say now what happened, we should go and look at the film and we'll get back to you. Or blame a communication problem such as happened last week on a certain coaching staff I could name. Nope, the man steps up, says "We blew it and the blame starts with me." As a Redskins fan, it makes the losing a bit more bearable for me. To at least now that the coaching staff doesn't have its head in the sand or is singing a few choruses of "La, la, la..nothing wrong here."

And in a lot of ways, it points out a difference to me between the Skins staff and the UT staff. All season, the Vols have underperformed. And there's a lot of finger-pointing and blaming going on right now. I'm pretty darn guilty of it myself and I think we all know who my favorite target to blame is. But yet, I think the thing that has frustrated me most is that no one on the team or the staff has said, "We ain't getting it done. It's my fault and the team's fault for allowing this to hapen."

Would it make it OK to squander this much potential? No.

But would it stop the firestorm that is going on right now and will lead to Randy Sanders stepping down later today? Maybe.

I guess as a UT fan, I want to feel as if the coaching staff and the team knows that this problem is there and that we're all frustrated by it. And they are as frurstrated as we, the fans are. And that they're gonna take some responsibility and try to do something about it. Instead of the revolving door at QB and the hope that maybe the offense might just figure it out this week, if we'd had somone say--we are not doing well and we're going to do what it takes to try and get better, I think I'd be less down on the Vols than I am right now. It doesn't make it any less a bitter pill--it just makes it easier to swallow.